Blink
by theWeekendSquared
Summary: "What's worse than finding a worm in your apple? Finding six of your teeth in it." Max's expiration date is coming soon. Real soon. But she has a plan. Instead of telling the Flock, she decides to tell someone else. Someone identical to her in almost every way. Someone so similar that if you blink, you could miss the difference... (t for language/themes)
1. anything

**Hi guys. Been a while, I know. I honestly forgot about this website. When I logged back in a few days ago, all my 30+ documents had expired. I'm going to take that as a message to start fresh.**

 **So this is** ** _Blink_** **. Short story, takes place between MAX and FANG. I hope you like it.**

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T-MINUS 15 DAYS

I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me.

I haven't even told anyone. How would you slip that into the conversation? _Hey Iggy, nice shirt! By the way, I'm going to die in fifteen days_.

Knowing the Flock, they'd freak the fuck out. Probably tear apart the corners of the world looking for a cure for a disease that I don't have, or an off switch for a kill button they have no way of knowing exists.

My expiration date was bound to show up eventually. Burned the back of my neck so bad I almost thought I had fallen asleep on the kitchen stove instead of my bed.

If I'm being honest, I'm relieved I'm the first one to go. At least this way I won't have to see anyone else die. It sounds cowardly and hideous, but I'd honestly rather keel over first than have to endure anyone else doing it. I'll admit, there was some crying that was done in the secrecy of my room, with the resultant red eyes being blamed on seasonal "allergies". I don't know if I've fooled anyone, but I only need to keep this up for fifteen more days.

And Angel? Yes, I was worried that she would be able to read my mind and broadcast my thoughts to everyone. But a great side effect of dying is being able to put up mental blocks. I discovered this new power about a day before my expiration date showed up. Mental blocks that keep my deep thoughts securely under lock and key, leaving only the innocuous ones (like the thoughts about how Fang's ass looks great in dark jeans... okay, maybe not so innocuous) for her to pilfer.

Don't scoff at me for looking at Fang's ass. I might be dying, but I'm not _dead_.

I haven't thought about how I'm going to say goodbye to anyone yet. But here's the great thing- I don't have to.

Because I've got a plan. A plan that's really fucking stupid, when I think about it, so I've resolved not to think about it too much.

And that plan is why I'm here in the middle of the night, here in this abandoned trailer park. Only a couple hours south of where the Flock was staying. I couldn't believe she lived here, but this is where I traced the IP address to. Because of _course_ I found her online, and of _course_ she was one of the first followers of Fang's blog. I was kind of mad he didn't tell me she was following him, but then I don't tell him about a lot of stuff (like the jeans thing).

Trailer number 15. She's got one of those cute Chia plants on her doorstep. I nearly knock it over as I give the weathered door a few hard raps with my knuckle.

I wait, slightly shivering in the cold, wishing I had put on a windbreaker or something. How ironic would it be if I died of a cold right about now?

I hear footsteps inside of the dusty trailer. So she's in there. She's just not coming out. How inconsiderate. She has a reason to be scared of me- last time we met, I almost ripped her throat out. I didn't because I'm not a killer, but I bet every girl says that.

Undeterred, I knock on the door again. I keep knocking until it feels like most of the skin on my knuckles has chafed off, and I'm still knocking when the door opens.

I smile brightly at the scowl on her face. "Hi!"

"How did you find me?" She's clutching a metal poker in her hands, and I'm pretty sure it's not because she was tending a fire just seconds ago.

"Fang's blog. And some hacking."

Her knuckles, which were white with anticipation, relax slightly and she lowers the poker about an inch. "Is anyone else with you?"

I shake my head. "No, this is a solo courtesy call."

"I thought you were an Eraser. Or a Flybot."

"Fly _boy_ ," I correct her, sidestepping the poker and entering her tiny trailer. I look around at the tiny sofa, the rabbit-ears TV, and the colorful throw rug, all covered in a thick layer of dust. "So you're hiding, huh?"

She frowns at me and closes the front door. "They want to kill me as much as they wanted to kill you now."

"Who'd you steal this little hideout off of?"

"Owners died in a car accident."

"That's dark," I say, blowing the dust off of a World's Greatest Dad mug.

"Not everyone has access to safe houses and all that bullshit," she shoots back. "Why are you here?"

I lean against the tiny table. "I need your help."

"Last time I saw you, you tried to kill me."

"Because you impersonated me and tried to turn my Flock against me," I shoot back.

She rolls her eyes. "I was trained to do that since my conception. And your little mind reader friend caught on to me in a second." She sets the twisted poker down on the table. "Why would you need my help?"

I watch her eyes, so similar to mine. Same scars, same mouth, same hairline, same slightly crooked tooth. It's like looking in a mirror, down to the small freckles I have on my cheeks.

"I need you to be me again. Permanently."


	2. can

**Short chapters, short story, hopefully quick updates. The Flock will be involved in the next chapter.**

 **Thanks for the reviews :) I had almost forgotten why I did this in the first place... but I remember now.**

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T-MINUS 15 DAYS

"After all this time, after you nearly killed me for impersonating you, after all that, you want me to be you?" She spits on the ground. I look at it with distaste; spitting's a nasty habit. "Who the hell do you think you are? Who do you think I am?"

I shrug. "You're me."

She shakes her head. "No. I'm not you. My whole life I was trained to believe that, but I've come to terms with it over the past year that I'm not you. I'm not Max II. I'm Maya. I'm not you."

"Maya. Nice name." I stare at the dust-covered table, and decide it's okay if I get some dust on my clothes. It's not like I'll be attending any fancy parties for the rest of my life, anyway. So I sit down, and a cloud of dust pops up, nearly shielding her expression from me.

"Okay. Just make yourself at home, then." She crosses her arms. "Why are you here?"

It's the third time she's asked that in five minutes, and I think she does deserve more explanation. So I sigh. "You might want to sit down for this."

She snorts. "I think I'll stand."

"Fine. Whatever. I don't have a lot of time, anyway. My expiration date is coming up fast." I ignore the astonished expression on her face and continue. "I haven't told the Flock, and I'm not going to because I can't face their reactions. I want you to replace me. I want you to be the leader for the Flock, because I know them well enough to know that without a leader, they'll self-implode."

Maya- it's honestly really weird to call her that- seems to be incapable of speech. She stares at me, opening and closing her mouth, her eyebrows folded together so tightly that I wonder if mine are capable of almost disappearing like that. It's a useless power, making your eyebrows disappear, but I'll take what I can get at this point.

Then she finally manages to say one syllable. And it's not the one I'm looking for. "No."

"No?"

Maya starts pacing the length of the tiny trailer. It's so small that she's basically just doing step-turns every three feet. But she has the same habit as me; she needs to move when she's agitated. Good. The more like me she is, the better it will be. "You... you can't just pop in here in the middle of the night with some half-assed plan to replace yourself with what you perceive to be nothing more than your _clone_. I mean... I couldn't stand to be in the company of your Flock for even one full day."

"Yeah, they can be a handful sometimes." I recall Gazzy's surprise scents, Iggy's sarcasm, Nudge's incessant chattering, Angel's tantrums, Fang's stubbornness, and I stifle a smile.

I'll miss them.

But I'm not allowing myself to think about that just yet.

"So why the hell would I help you?"

"You won't have to live in a trailer in the middle of nowhere anymore. Think about it. You'll be me. No one will want to kill you- and even if they do, they're too chicken to do anything about it. You'll be living in a safe house, protected by the CSM and even the military. You won't have to worry about food or shelter ever again. You'll have a family. No one will ever compare you to me again."

Maya falters mid-step, and for a moment I think I've got her. But then she says. "Maybe I can fool them for a day. Two days max. But they're not stupid, Max. What do you think's gonna happen when they realize who I am and what's happened to you?"

I lean forward earnestly. "That's where I come in. Your whole life you were trained to _be_ me, but you weren't trained _by_ me. Believe me, I am way better qualified to teach you about me than the grotty whitecoats. And if all else fails, I'll write a note."

"A note."

"Yeah."

"A _note_?"

"I'll be sure to cross-date it."

She crosses her arms. "This has got to be the most half-baked plan you've ever come up with."

I smile. "Yeah. Definitely."

"I almost want to call you an idiot. But I guess I'm an idiot too, for saying yes."

"Yes?"

She sighs. "Yeah. Okay. I'm in. I might as well be useful for _something_ in my life."

"Good. Okay. We've only got a couple weeks, so your first lesson starts now." I stand up on the chair, slip a little on the dust, and grab the poker from the table. "Lesson one: never compromise. Not when Gazzy asks you to buy him lithium batteries, not when Iggy demands you taste-test his new falafel recipe, not when Nudge pesters you to get her the latest Jimmy Choos. You're Maximum-Fucking-Ride now."

I catch a glimpse of a smile on Maya's face. "If that's your real middle name, I'm dropping out right now."


	3. happen

**Thanks to the reviewers!**

 **I have nothing else to say except this chapter is too short to be legit.**

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T-MINUS 14 DAYS

At around 8:30, Gazzy stumbled down the stairs of the Flock's safe house, blearily brushing spikes of blond hair out of his forehead. He wasn't a morning person at all. None of the Flock was. He'd still be in bed if it wasn't for the fact that he couldn't sleep at all. He'd woken up about ten minutes earlier, his stomach rumbling.

So when he found Max sitting at the kitchen table, his heart leaped into his stomach. "What's for breakfast?"

Max jumped about three feet in the air, and Gazzy thought maybe he shouldn't have crept up on her. "Uh... I don't know."

Gazzy sighed. To be fair, asking Max what food they had was like asking Fang what nail polish went with his outfit. "Okay." He walked over to the sink and began splashing water in his face.

"Made any good bombs lately?" Max blurted out.

"What?"

She shook her head. "Never mind. I'm gonna... gonna go and grab some... vitamin D. Take in some of that sunlight."

It was cold and cloudy outside. Gazzy stared. "Do you have a fever?"

Max snorted. "What? Pshhh. _No._ I, the great Maximum Ride, sick? That's... that's ridiculous..."

And before Gazzy could say anything else, she bolted for the door and closed it securely behind her.

...

I'm pacing up and down this rickety branch. We're gonna need a better rendezvous place- this tree is really conspicuous. The only reason I picked it was because it has a view of the house from here. Well, kind of. If I crane my neck as high as it can go, I can see a bit of the roof.

I wonder how Maya's doing. She looked really surprised when I sort of shoved her into the house earlier this morning. But I need a baseline for her interactions to see what we need to improve on. I figured Gazzy would get up first, because he'd be starving, and I also thought Gaz would be good to interact with first. He's not calculating like Fang or Angel, he's not intuitive like Iggy, and he's not overly curious and talkative like Nudge. So Gazzy's the easiest person to fool as an impostor.

Man, being on the verge of death really allows you to see a lot more into peoples' character. I wonder if this is how Oprah feels after a particularly emotional talk.

I breathe out a sigh of relief when I see Maya heading towards me. She doesn't look too happy, but at least there's not an angry Flock following her...

She lands on the branch hard, nearly cracking it. I grab onto the tree trunk for support as I ask her, "How'd it go?"

"The kid asked me what there was for breakfast!" Maya pushes her blonde hair out of her face, looking disgruntled. "How the fuck am I supposed to know?!"

"Okay. First up, don't swear. Not in your head, not out loud, nothing. You've got to be a semi-decent role model. My Flock is made up of kids aged six to fourteen. I want them to stay innocent while they still can. Swearing like a sailor isn't gonna endear the Flock to you." She opens her mouth to retaliate, but I push back. "Secondly, do what I do when I don't know the answer to something."

"And what's that?" Maya asks, crossing her arms tightly.

I grin. "Wing it. Make something up. If Gazzy asks you what's for breakfast, say Iggy's got it covered, or that you hope the food fairies visited overnight, or some other random thing. I hate not having an answer to anything, so I'll make some stuff up if I have to. It's an easy question to answer. Besides, it's not like he asked you to name the monarchs of England in order, did he?"

"William the Conqueror, William the Second, Henry the First, Stephen, Henry the Second-"

I roll my eyes. "My God, you're hopeless."

Maya looks slightly embarrassed. "The only things to read in the School were history books. I guess Marian Janssen was really into history."

"Yeah, because she _lived_ during that time. She was, like, three hundred or something."

"I can also recite the states in alphabetical order."

I sigh. "Show-off. Okay. If we have time, teach me. But we've still got a _lot_ of work to do. I think it's time for lesson two: How to interact with the flock."


	4. in the

"Okay. First up: Gazzy. What do you know about him?"

Maya responds promptly. "Subject F28246eff, known coloquially as _The Gasman_ , nine years old, fraternal elder brother of subject F28234eff-"

I cut her off. "Okay. My Flock, which is going to become _your_ Flock soon enough, are not just numbers on a paper. They're people. I want you to forget whatever the School told you about them. Whatever files and reports you memorized about them, they're gone. Out the window. To get along with the Gasman, you need to know three things about him."

She nods, looking extra focused. "Okay."

"One: you could lock him in a padded cell with with some dental floss and a bowl of Jell-O, and he'd still find a way to make something explode." I smile slightly, thinking about the time we spent with the U.S. army, in which he had done basically the same thing.

Maya looks confused. "He's a pytotechnic? The School never mentioned..." She falters under my gaze. "Right. Sorry. Forget what they told me."

"Two: He's beyond loyal, and not too suspicious, unlike the others. If you wanna lie to the rest of the Flock, Gazzy is a good place to start."

"So you want me to start pretending to be you in front of _him_ before anyone else."

I grin. Maya's a fast learner, kind of like me when the thing I'm learning has nothing to do with math or science. When Jeb taught us how to read and write, I picked it up way faster than Fang did, and then I'd tease him by writing things like _you suck_ or _eat my dust_ on bits of paper around the house because I knew he couldn't read it.

Good times.

"Three, and this is more helpful for your personal health than anything else: _Stay upwind_."

Maya frowns. "You mean..."

"Trust me. Stay upwind. Unless you want your sinuses to be burned off by the sheer terror he can output after eating deviled eggs. They're silent killers, and you'll be begging for mercy- _ow_!"

I nearly fall off the branch I'm perched on as a sharp, stinging pain slashes across my temples. I close my eyes, breathing heavily, waiting for the pain to subside. When it's dulled to a small throbbing that I can easily ignore, I open my eyes to find Maya staring worriedly at me.

"Are you okay?"

I shrug. "It's been happening quite often. I suppose it's something to do with the date tattooed on my neck."

My statement doesn't placate her at all. "Max, I really think you should-"

"Tell someone? See a doctor? We both know how much good that'll do. When a mutant gets their expiration date, there's no way out of it. I mean..." I swallow painfully, remembering Ari's final moments. "That's how my brother died."

Maya looks at the ground, and I know she's remembering all the moments she's spent with Ari. He was, after all, her partner in crime.

"Anyways, we're moving on. Next up: Iggy. World-class chef, Gazzy's sidekick, and surprisingly good at landing punches to your mouth, despite being a blind guy."

* * *

"Where's Max?" Iggy asked Gazzy, as he started cracking open eggs.

Gazzy inhaled the sweet, sweet aroma of what would soon be scrambled eggs and shrugged. "She went to go get fresh air or something. She was acting pretty weird."

Iggy reached for the salt where he had left it only to find it wasn't there. Gazzy pushed the carton of salt towards Iggy's long fingers. "I think the fact that Max got up at seven in the morning is pretty weird." He began putting extra salt into the eggs, just the way the Flock liked them.

Just then, the front door opened, and Max stepped in, looking surprised to see Iggy in the kitchen.

"Hey, Max," Gazzy said amicably, and Max nodded at him.

"Hey... Gaz." She took a seat at the dining table furthest away from Gazzy. He grinned. Iggy was making eggs... the Flock was going to have a good, aromatic experience this morning.

"How was the fresh air?"

Max shrugged. "I just wanted to fly around for a bit before everyone else woke up."

"Well, I'm pouring the orange juice," Gazzy said, getting glasses out of the cupboard.

Max stood up. "I'll go wake up the girls."

* * *

Maya wanted to scream. The last time she had been face to face with Angel, the girl had seen through her disguise. Her last words? _I can read minds, you idiot_.

Of course, the situation had been drastically different then. Maya had been on the side of the whitecoats, and she was actively trying to terminate the Flock. _Max is on_ your _side now_ , she thought, pushing open the door to the little girl's room. _Just act natural_.

"Wake up, Angel," she said quietly, entering the room.

Angel sat up and Maya was struck by how small she looked in her pajamas. "Good morning, Max."

"Good morning," Maya said, smiling. "Ig and Gaz are downstairs eating breakfast. I suggest you get down there quick before Gazzy does his trademark thing."

Angel smiled and Maya relaxed slightly. "Thanks, Max." She swung her feet off the bed and walked towards the bathroom.

So far so good... Next up was Nudge, and as Maya knocked on the door to Nudge's room, she felt a little calmer. Maybe this wasn't as hard as she had previously thought. At least there was no talking dog this time. "Hey, Nudge. Time to get up."

Nudge rolled over in her bed, groaning. Max had warned that Nudge was usually the last one to get up. "Ten more hours."

"I'll give you ten minutes to get dressed and come downstairs for breakfast," Maya said, assuming the commanding tone she had copied from Max. Nudge groaned, but still pushed the covers off of her and attempted to stand up.

Ten minutes later, Iggy proved his blind brilliance by serving plates of scrambled eggs to everyone at the dining table. The rest of the flock dug in with gusto, and Maya remembered how Max said they were accustomed to living off of Dumpster meals and desert rat. She smiled and put a forkful of eggs into her mouth... only to spit it out all over the table a moment later.

"Eurgh!" Maya grabbed the nearest glass of orange juice and downed it in one gulp, shuddering slightly. The blind boy was a good cook?! The eggs were _way_ too salty... and yet, the rest of the Flock was eating comfortably. Gazzy had even finished his entire plate.

"You okay, Max?" Nudge asked.

"Yeah," Maya muttered. "Just... a little too salty for me."

Iggy frowned. "Really? I put the normal amount. One handful."

 _One handful_? That would be enough to season an entire bucket of scrambled eggs! And yet... maybe the Flock was accustomed to over-salted food. Maybe it was a detail Max had overlooked. It was the only explanation that made sense.

Maya forced a smile on her face. "Right. I'm fine." And she lifted another forkful to her mouth, hesitant about letting it in.

Luckily, she was interrupted, so she didn't have to.

Unluckily, the interruption came in the form of an arm slung across her shoulder. Maya looked up into the handsome, albeit scruffy, face of Subject F26254wtt. Also known as Fang.

* * *

 **uh-oh, guess who forgot to tell Maya about her relationship with Fang...**


	5. wink

**o o p s**

* * *

Maya stared into the depths of Fang's dark eyes, momentarily forgetting who she was pretending to be. Instead, her School training kicked into autopilot and she grabbed his arm painfully, flinging it off of her and pushing him away. Fang glanced at her, confused.

"You okay?"

Maya paused, looking from the concerned glance of Fang to the confused expressions of the Flock, all of whom already had clean plates. She knew she had to think fast, but Max hadn't prepared her for a scenario like this. "Uh... stomachache," she lied, standing up and throwing her knife and fork down. "Iggy, the eggs were really good... but I think it's coming back up."

She avoided everyone's stares as she ran up the stairs, to the bedroom in the back of the house which Max had to herself, and leapt out of the open window. Max had some explaining to do.

* * *

"Well, no use letting these go to waste," Gazzy said, grabbing Max's mostly untouched plate and shoveling down a second helping of eggs. Presently, the room was filled with the rank stink of indigestion.

Iggy pinched his nose. "While I'm glad _someone_ seems to like my cooking, I just wish you'd have a different method of appreciation. Nudge, wanna help me clean the dishes?"

Nudge groaned. "Not really."

"It's either that or bathroom duty," Iggy said, gathering all the plates except Fang's in his arms. "And after Gazzy's display, I don't think you'll want to go in the bathroom for a long time."

"Eurgh, you're right," Nudge said, sighing and getting up to guide Iggy to the sink.

Fang, meanwhile, finished clearing his own plate, and turned to Angel, who was busy picking at a stray thread on the tablecloth. Before he could open his mouth, Angel answered, "Yes, I do think Max is acting weird. And don't act all surprised to me. I know you've been sleeping in her bed at night. I can read minds."

Fang closed his mouth for a moment, but then opened it again. "I didn't think you'd..."

"Oh, I always knew you two would end up together. I mean, you've had dirty thoughts about her from the age of twelve, haven't you?" Fang reddened as Angel gave him a self-satisfied smile. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. Not even Max."

* * *

I'm surprised to see Maya back so quickly. I've been pacing the length of the forest floor, alternately convincing myself this is a good plan and that I am the smartest bird kid ever and telling myself this is a terrible idea and I have poop for brains. I am on the "this is the best idea ever" side of the spectrum when she lands in front of me, nearly toppling forward with the amount of force she puts herself on the ground with. I frown. Maya doesn't really fly like me. I'm a lot more graceful, more deliberate in my strokes. She's... well, she's about as good as a six year old.

Next lesson?

"Why are you back?" I ask her, pretending not to notice as she messily folds her wings back up, causing some of her primaries to bend the wrong way. Ugh, if there was _one_ thing I have OCD about...

"What's going on with you and Fang?" she asks petulantly.

I freeze. "Uh..."

"What, are you guys lovers in the night, or something? Do you expect me to pretend to be in love with him? Because that wasn't part of the deal, and if it is, I'm cutting this off right now."

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to broach this subject right now," I say, sighing. "Fang's... well, he's going to be one of the hardest things I have to leave behind. And I really don't want to spend my last couple weeks getting all weepy, so I didn't wanna talk about him and start turning into a leaky faucet, okay? I'm sorry if things got weird. What exactly happened?"

Maya shrugs, kicking over a rock. "Nothing. _Yet_. But I can't... I can't pretend to be you around him. I can't kiss him or whatever, pretending to be you. Even if it wasn't totally weird for me, which it is, he'd find out in a heartbeat. And then where would you be?"

I nod, wringing my hands. "Okay. You're right. There's no good solution to this..." I start pacing again. I can feel myself starting to revert back to the "this idea is bullshit" side of the spectrum. But I can't give up now. I've deluded myself into thinking this plan is going to work, and I'm going to stick with it until it crashes and burns to the ground. Or, on a much less likely note, succeeds.

And then the idea comes to me.

"Tell him."


	6. of an

**wow it's been decades i'm poooooooooo**

* * *

 _'Cause we could be immortals, immortals,_

 _Just not for long, for long_

* * *

 _"Tell him."_

Maya stared at the girl in front of her with a mixture of indignation and revulsion. " _Tell_ him? Do you realize your whole stupid plan was to quietly die without having to deal with the fallout? And now you want me to jeopardize my safety by telling the guy that tried to _kill_ me a few years ago when I was impersonating you that I'm impersonating you?!"

Max blinked. "Uhh... when you put it like that, it sounds kinda terrible."

Maya crossed her arms and shifted her weight in an attempt to lean on the oak tree next to her. The trunk was a good foot farther away than she had judged, so she ended up stumbling and nearly falling over, her sneakered feet crunching a branch in the process.

"I heard a noise over there!" A familiar boy's voice echoed through the forest somewhere to their left, and both girls jumped.

Max looked at Maya, her poise tensed and ready. "You need to hide. They'll be here any minute."

Maya shook her head. "No. You go. I got this."

"But-"

"We're not wearing the same clothes. So if the Flock sees you instead of me they'll ask questions about how you made a quick costume change in the middle of a forest. And your hair is different. More tangled." Behind Max's figure she could see a flash of spiky blond hair furiously thrashing through the undergrowth. "Please trust me. Hide now or everything will be ruined."

Max rolled her eyes and stealthily crept off, all the while muttering, "I gotta start teaching you to talk like me. You sound like an English professor at Yale that just won a Nobel Prize."

* * *

Just as I get out of view and peer out at Maya from behind a tree (the best hiding I could come up with on such a short notice; now you know why the Erasers found us so much), the Gasman bursts onto the scene with two Wii remotes in his hand and a bemused expression on his face. "Uh... hi."

Maya attempts to give him an easy grin, and it's obvious from her grimace that smiling does not come easy to her. She looks like me, alright... me when I'm trying to take a fat dump. "Hi."

Gazzy gestures to the surrounding trees. "So is this where you've been running off to?"

Maya hoists a confused expression onto her face. "Running?"

"Yeah, like you totally disappeared last night. And today during breakfast, like, twice."

My blood runs cold. He noticed I left last night? What else has he noticed- maybe that the girl standing in front of him _isn't me_?

I hold my breath, willing Maya to keep her cool. "What are you talking about? I didn't leave last night."

Gazzy crosses his arms. "Yeah, you totally did. And I know this 'cause Iggy kicked me out of our room yesterday because I was 'letting it rip' too much in my sleep, and he said it was like sharing a room with a constipated donkey. Anyways, I was heading downstairs to crash on the couch, and I saw you leave your room. I assumed you were heading over to Fang's..." He winks at Maya causing her to flinch slightly. "But you leaped out of the window. Did you sleep out here?" He looks around with interest, his eyes glazing over the exact tree I'm standing behind.

"...Yeah. I slept here." Maya crosses her arms and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "Look, why did you follow me? Don't you know I can take care of myself?"

Gazzy shifts from foot to foot, looking sheepish. "Well... to be honest, I didn't really come here to figure out if you were okay or not." He holds up the two Wii remotes. "I need someone to play Super Mario Bros. with me, and no one else will do it. I know you suck at the game, but will you _please_ come back and play with me?" When Maya looks hesitant he says, "It's either that or I hotwire the microwave again."

"Okay, I'll play," Maya says quickly, darting a glance over at my tree.

Gazzy's lips curl into a mischievous leer, and I wish I could warn Maya about what that smile entails. Either he's already blown up the microwave, or he's about to let one rip.

As I watch Maya and Gazzy walk back in the direction of the house, Maya's eyes watering and Gaz looking pleased with himself, I feel a pang of indignation. Why doesn't he realize that the girl who bathed him when he was still figuring out pooping and farting wasn't the same thing, taught him how to read, and hid all the electrical wires in the house as soon as he made his first Jell-O bomb at the age of five, _that_ girl isn't the one walking next to him?

Why doesn't he realize that I'm dying?

 _You wanted this, asshole_ , I think to myself. _And now you're gonna have to live with it._ I shiver slightly in the small breeze. Silently I unfold my wings and leap into the sky, planning to hit the local malls or secondhand stores for clothes that match my style. I'm gonna have to buy two of the same items of clothing from here on out.

Maya'll contact me if anything goes wrong today, but I somehow doubt it will.

And so I resign myself to a lonely day.

I should've realized the price of trying to be immortal is that you're fucking _alone_.

* * *

 **Ok guys i'm not gonna lie i really don't have time for fanfiction anymore so after i finish updating this story every few years like i've been doing i'm going to retire.**

 **but first... on the next episode of What The Fuck Is Wrong With Max, we have an innocent Wii game go terribly wrong, a mind reader that's a little too nosy, and... a love triangle?!**

 **yea so hopefully i'll update soon ;)**


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